DALLAS -- Late game heroics once again pushed the Sycamores past Southern Illinois as Indiana State eliminated the Salukis on day three of the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship, 14-12, in 10 innings at Horner Ballpark.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Roberto Enriquez hit a two-run blast to right field -- just his second home run of the season -- in the bottom of the 10th to send the Sycamores to an elimination game with No. 24 Missouri State later Friday evening.
The Sycamores (31-23) would need an answer in the bottom of the ninth though to tie the game when Southern Illinois (28-30) went for four runs in the ninth to take a 12-11 lead. The Salukis capitalized on three Indiana State errors and collected four hits in the inning. After Connor Kopach tied the game with a two-RBI single up the middle, Alex Lyon reached on an infield error with a runner on third to give the Salukis the lead.
Luke Fegen would single through the left side to begin the bottom half before moving to second on a wild pitch. After a strikeout and a fly out to left field, Indiana State was down to their final out when
CJ Huntley hit the ground ball to shortstop and beat out the throw, while Fegen went from second to home to tie the game.
ISU jumped on the board early with an RBI groundout from
Dane Giesler in the first but the Salukis answered back with two solo shots in the bottom half from Lyon and Jared Kengott top regain the lead.
SIU went on to take a 5-3 lead but the Sycamores scored eight unanswered runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The Sycamores sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth, notching six hits and scoring five times. Enriquez,
Jake Means,
Clay Dungan,
CJ Huntley and
Romero Harris tallied hits in the inning. Fegen, Dungan and
Hayden Jaco went for hits in the fifth.
The Salukis cut the ISU lead in half in the sixth with a three-run home run from Niki Vasic.
It was a staff game for the Sycamores five arms saw the mound for Indiana State.
Geremy Guerrero tallied his fifth start of the season, going two and two-third innings, allowing five runs while striking out a career high six.
Jake Ridgway was strong out of the bullpen allowing just two earned runs in two and two-third innings.
Sophomore
Tyler Grauer tossed three innings, allowing just one earned run while
Ethan Larrison (3-6) recorded two-thirds of an inning en route to the win.
Ryan Netemeyer (0-5) blew his second-straight save against Indiana State after allowing the walk-off home run in the 10th.
COACHES REACTION
SPOTLIGHT
Three Sycamores recorded three base hits in the game, but none was bigger than Roberto Enriquez' two-run walk-off home run in the 10th inning. It was just Enriquez' second home run of the season and the first since the third game of the season at Oregon and the second walk off of SIU in the MVC Championship.
STANDOUT STATS
Indiana State outhit Southern Illinois 16-15, marking the seventh game in the last eight games that Indiana State has went for double-digit hits. The Sycamores hit 11-of-28 (.393) with runners on base and 6-of-20 (.300) with runners in scoring position.
UP NEXT
Indiana State advances in the loser's bracket and will face top-seed and No 24-ranked Missouri State later this evening. Follow the Sycamores on Twitter (@IndStBaseball) for details. The game will air on ESPN+ while
Luke Martin will call the action on GoSycamores.com/Watch.
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